As humans, we all have something that we are very passionate about. In difficult times, anyone can turn to this specific passion and it helps provide a sense of relief. What if, suddenly, this essential passion in life disappeared little by little? Poet Matthew Arnold captured this experience in his free verse poem “Dover Beach.” Arnold was very passionate about Christ, and in the mid-1800s Christianity began to disappear throughout his native England. Arnold wrote this free verse sitting on the shore of Dover Beach, suggesting the setting and title of the poem, with his new wife to express his sadness at his nation's loss of faith. In this poem, Arnold uses several literary devices to illustrate his sadness towards Throughout the stanza, Arnold references a Greek god and uses his senses to help the reader better understand a specific line. As Arnold describes the overall theme of the poem in more detail, he alludes to an ancient Greek tragedian: "Sophocles long ago / heard it on the Aegean Sea." This phrase is used to help individuals remember the play Aegean, where Sophocles tells people that God can visit people through the wind. Arnold then concludes the second stanza of lines nineteen and twenty by saying, "Find also in the sound a thought, / Hear it by that distant northern sea" (19-20). Referring to "Finding" (19) and "Hearing" (20), Arnold expresses that he hears the same sound on the beach at Dover as Sophocles did in I found that this poem gives a good interpretation detail of how dark this world would be if we did. we do not have the light of Jesus Christ to follow. Although I was surprised at how sad and dark this poem was, I was very touched to know that the spirituality in my hometown is great and that I will never have to experience what England made in the mid-1800s. I admire Arnold's ability to get his message across through a four-stanza free verse poem, leaving the reader with a feeling of sadness for the author. "Dover Beach" is a remarkable poem about events that many people didn't know happened, and helps readers think deeply about how much one appreciates being able to express one's spirituality and how much that means